President Bill Clinton Hosts Special Session on Recovery in Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2010 Annual Meeting

September 23, 2010

Program Participants Included President Clinton, Réne Préval, president of the Republic of Haiti, and Jean-Max Bellerive, prime minister of the Republic of Haiti

Program Also Featured Sessions On Enhancing Access to Modern Technology With Participants Including John Chambers, Jack Dorsey, Arianna Huffington, Mohamed Ibrahim, Ashton Kutcher, Pierre Omidyar, and Ratan N. Tata

New York, NY – On the third day of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), President Bill Clinton hosted a special session on Recovery in Haiti, gathering key leaders from government and business to discuss how the international community can help Haiti rebuild.

“Since the Haiti earthquake in January, CGI members have made $224 million in commitments to help Haiti build back better, in addition to the more than $140 million in commitments made before the quake,” President Clinton said. “Working together alongside the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, CGI members are delivering measurable results in housing, clean energy, infrastructure, health care, and education, among other important sectors, to give the Haitian people the tools to create a better future for their nation."

President Clinton, who is co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, moderated the session, which featured Réne Préval, president of the Republic of Haiti; Jean-Max Bellerive, prime minister of the Republic of Haiti; Denis O’Brien, chairman of Digicel; Adam Golstein, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International; and Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. A webcast can be viewed at live.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

The special session on Haiti followed programming during the morning which focused on Enhancing Access to Modern Technology, one of CGI’s four Action Areas for 2010. A plenary session on the topic featured John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and co-founder and chairman of Twitter, and Ratan N. Tata, chairman of Tata Group. Panelists addressed how technology can play a major role in meeting the world’s greatest challenges.

After the plenary session, three breakouts addressed more specific topics. A breakout session on Democracy and Voice featured Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of the Huffington Post, Mohamed Ibrahim, chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Ashton Kutcher, co-chair of the Demi and Ashton Foundation, Pierre Omidyar, founding partner of the Omidyar Network, and Maria Otero, under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs with the U.S. Department of State. The session was followed by a press conference in which Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore discussed the DNA Foundation’s efforts to end sex trafficking of children.

Photos are available approximately two hours after each session on our Flickr page. Please visit press.clintonglobalinitiative.org for the link.

Follow the Clinton Foundation’s tweets about CGI at: twitter.com/ClintonTweet. The official hash-tag for the 2010 CGI Annual Meeting is #cgi2010.

CGI is posting daily video highlights on its YouTube channel, youtube.com/cgivideos. Follow President Clinton’s updates on his facebook page at facebook.com/billclinton.

The following commitments were announced today:

Amazon Aid Foundation Inspiring Action to Protect and Preserve the Amazon Within three years, Amazon Aid Foundation (AAF) commits to provide education, awareness, and solutions to the devastating environmental issues affecting the Amazonian rainforest. This will be done through a documentary film, a photography exhibition by Ron Haviv, and high school curriculums. AAF will bring awareness and change through art and science presentations, based on scientific data and research about rainforest losses.

Climate Action Reserve Climate Action Reserve Tropical Forestry ProgramThe Climate Action Reserve commits to establish a Tropical Forestry Program that will research and set credible standards for carbon offset programs to be used in the Mexican forestry industry in order to protect 10 million acres of tropical forests over the next three years. Operating within the UN-REDD framework, the Tropical Forestry Program will help private companies offset and reduce carbon emissions, and also set standards for the Mexican forestry industry’s forest management and reforestation initiatives.

DataDyne.org Stockout Knockout: Getting Medicine to Those in NeedDataDyne.org commits to help health care providers around the world track, order, and receive essential medical supplies by mobile phone. Through a cloud-based system accessible from mobile phones in remote locations, DataDyne.org will enable this data collection for thousands of organizations in more than 150 countries worldwide. Medical workers and pharmacy managers can use their mobile phones to order supplies when they are out of stock, and track materials as they are transported.

Discovery Communications Inc. Be The Future: Discovery STEM Education InitiativeDiscovery Communications will extend “Head Rush,” an educational program on the Science Channel, from a six-month to a one-year-long show. The program will target middle school students and encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Discovery Communications will make the show’s content available to 35 million students through its digital education service.

Duke Energy Corporation and Cisco Envision CharlotteDuke Energy and Cisco commit to pilot Envision Charlotte, an innovative program that aims to reduce the energy use of 60 commercial buildings in Charlotte by 20 percent over five years. In collaboration with the governor’s office, the Charlotte mayor’s office, Center City Partners, and Bank of America, the initiative will combine smart grid technology, energy education, and automation technology to create a replicable and sustainable model of energy efficiency.

F.I.S.H. Foundation Mar Elias H.S. Technology Upgrade, Israel/PalestineF.I.S.H. Foundation commits $100,000 over the next four months to provide academic and research technology for the biotechnology, physics, and computer labs of Mar Elias High School in Ibillin, Israel. This Palestinian-founded school, with 1,200 students from all over northern Israel, needs upgraded technology equipment to help students excel on Israel’s standardized matriculation exams.

Girls Inc. Girls Inc. Eureka!: STEM Career Development for GirlsGirls Inc. pledges to launch an intensive science, technology, engineering, and math based academic program with college counseling for 2,160 underserved girls in grades 8 through 12, based on a pilot program in which 100 percent of the girls went on to succeed in college.

Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest ProductsMarket-Driven Restoration - Marrecas Indigenous CommunityGuayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products will work with the Marrecas indigenous community in Brazil to establish an organic yerba mate business. Guayaki will help the Marrecas community design a detailed plan with specific environmental and social goals, and will link its customers with partner farming communities in order to provide a sustainable livelihood for 250 indigenous families and sustain and restore 40,000 acres of Atlantic rainforest in Brazil.

Honeywell International Inc. Turnkey Science and Technology Kits for Mexican SchoolsHoneywell will provide hands-on scientific learning materials to students and teachers in six Mexican middle schools in Mexicali, Monterrey, and Mexico City. Local Mexican-based Honeywell employees will mentor teachers on how to fully utilize these materials. Honeywell commits $50,000 to fund this one-year project for 250 students.

Hult International Business School Hult Global Case Challenge Hult International Business School commits to hold a global competition for a business plan that will tackle a challenge currently faced by a CGI Commitment to Action. One hundred teams from the top business schools across the world will compete to develop the best solution to the challenge for a $1 million grant that will be invested in the implementation of the business plan.

Linklaters and Camfed International Good Governance as a Key to EmpowermentLinklaters and Camfed commit to implement programs that will promote the need for effective governance, transparency, and accountability within the development sector. Working with members of government, non-government and private sector organizations, the initiative will host meetings and share best practices to encourage a more formalized model of governance within this sector and raise awareness of the importance of good governance in developing countries.

Wangari MaathaiThe Wangari Maathai Institute: Training for ActionNobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, commits to establish the Wangari Maathai Institute to provide training in sustainable environmental management. Through research, education, and community outreach, the Wangari Maathai Institute aims to improve attitudes towards the environment, and advance environmental resource management tools that promote peace and improve livelihoods.

Mercy Corps, Trilogy International Partners Mobile Money: Financial Inclusion for Haiti's Recovery Much of Haiti’s tenuous infrastructure was damaged after the January 2010 earthquake. But Mercy Corps, Trilogy International Partners, Voila, and UNIBANK realized that mobile services were readily restorable and could leapfrog the old system of financial access for the poor. These partners have made a commitment to provide mobile money services for 100,000 individuals in Haiti through a pilot project focused on mobile cash-for-work programming. This is the first step in an initiative that will provide a range of financial services and will serve as a platform to roll out mobile money to more than half a million Haitians.

National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Global Innovation InitiativeFrom 2010 to 2018, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance will create a global network of more than 100 universities that will participate in online educator trainings and idea exchanges. This network will create more than 500 new social enterprises, and help train the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) innovators.

Kim Samuel-Johnson Pioneering Permanent Energy Savings Kim Samuel-Johnson commits $2 million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America. This service will allow customers in three Nebraska towns to cover the costs of energy-smart retrofits to their homes by paying for them with a portion of their annual energy savings. It will strive to fundamentally transform the way energy efficiency services are delivered to ratepayers by making retrofit assessments and implementation significantly faster and therefore accessible to more people. Energy Pioneer Solutions will work with 19 nonprofits and 6 local religious institutions to identify families that would benefit most from saving money by saving energy.

SangariExpanding Science EducationFrom 2010 to 2011, Sangari will provide six underserved American elementary schools with Sangari Active Science Units, which include curriculum materials, science kits, shared laptops for teachers, and on-site professional development.

The Paradigm Project Clean Cookstoves: Changing the Energy Paradigm in KenyaThe Paradigm Project commits to provide 400,000 clean cookstoves to Kenyan households over the next ten years. This commitment will use a carbon offset program to generate revenue to fund the project, which will save an estimated 1.7 million trees, eliminate 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions, and save low-income families $4.5 million in fuel costs.

Toyola Energy Limited and E+Co., Inc.Innovative Finance for Clean Energy in Ghana Toyola and E+Co commit to sell 140,000 energy-efficient cook stoves and 10,000 solar energy products to low-income families in West Africa within three years. E +Co will provide small business loans to Toyola and will assist in leveraging carbon finance and creating microfranchises operated by local entrepreneurs.

TrustAfrica Africa Investment Climate and Business Environment FundTrustAfrica commits to invest $2.7 million in cutting-edge research that will focus on improving Africa’s investment climate and providing opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to thrive. TrustAfrica will provide technical assistance to strengthen the ability of civil society organizations to secure democracy and social justice.

TXTeagle Building the World's Largest Global Knowledge WorkForce TXTeagle commits to activate a global workforce through its new technology that allows any mobile phone subscriber to earn money by completing simple micro-tasks on his or her mobile device. Typically outsourced jobs, such as translation services or image tagging, can now be distributed to remote populations looking for work. TXTeagle commits to provide more than 250 million micro-tasks to one million mobile subscribers over the course of this year, and subsequently reimburse these workers with mobile airtime or cash.

We Love ReadingA Library in Every Neighborhood We Love Reading commits to open 100 neighborhood libraries throughout Jordan to encourage children to read. These libraries will be established close to neighborhood centers, mosques, and other community meeting spaces. Staff in the new libraries will train individuals from the surrounding community to read aloud to children.

About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 125 current and former heads of state, 15 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made more than 1,900 commitments valued at $63 billion, which have already improved the lives of nearly 300 million people in more than 170 countries. The CGI community also includes CGI University (CGI U), a forum to engage college students in global citizenship, MyCommitment.org, an online portal where anybody can make a Commitment to Action, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young leaders from business, government, and civil society. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.